Referendum isn’t the answer

Referendum talk is beginning to overshadow the real need of getting our everyday democracy into the hands of voters. Referendums work only with an engaged citizenry that is informed by a fair and unbiased media.

Truth is, every referendum on electoral reform has been sabotaged by misinformation from elite power brokers who like our flawed voting system, which promotes their will over the citizens at large. They are the ones that oppose real democracy.

To claim reform needs a referendum is to believe all major decisions should have a true majority of citizens’ consent. That’s what we’d routinely have for every decision, if we had a government with proportional representation (PR). Globally, most democracies have changed to PR voting systems.

A dozen committees and commissions already conducted in Canada all conclude that PR is needed for a government that really represents voters’ intentions. I don’t want smoke-and-mirrors propaganda derailing the public from what is in their best interest. I don’t need a referendum hijacked, again, by big money and the elite to keep our biased system that mostly works for them.

I just want a real democratic institution with proportional representation that reflects the will of the people it is supposed to serve.

David Weber
Kitchener

David Weber was the Kitchener South—Hespeler Green Party candidate during the 2015 federal election. This letter appeared in The May 25th, 2016 Record